"You guys vote the RAA (Roosevelt Action Association) way," RAA board member June Jorquez, who wanted the school in the neighborhood, told the school board. "If it's not right the first time, you vote again."

Kersting said the board's responsibility was to the voters who had passed last year's bond, an argument which might have seemed more valid had it been raised when the parent-teacher committee suggested looking for a new site. That would have been a year and a half ago, when both Mary Carr and John Carpenter were on the board.

"What happened to the site-based council?" Magnet parent Lucy Goodman asked the board. "Why did you let us go through all this process? Shame on you.